WE are rolling again and rocking – from tomorrow Tuesday January the 26th – Clitheroe Guitar Group 2016 will meet upstairs at the The Ale House, Clitheroe to play songs together, chat, drink a pint and improve our guitar playing.
We’ll meet just before 8pm, play for an hour or so and then relax, even more so than we were in the first place. You don’t need to be able to sing or play lead guitar, or fingerpick, not yet anyway. You do need to be able to play and change basic open major, minor and seventh chords to keep up with the group.
The first and most important thing is to remember to bring a capo and we can share our tuners and plectrums if anyone forgets. Here is the list of songs we’ll be working on.
Bad Moon Rising
Take It Easy by the Eagles
(Sittin On the) Dock of The Bay
Brown Eyed Girl
Norwegian Wood
Tear My Stillhouse Down (trad)
First of all, please note that the list of people wanting to join the Guitar Workshops in Clitheroe is growing but, although I want to keep the groups fairly intimate, there is room for more. 
If necessary we’ll start a second group to deal with the numbers please e mail mikegkneafsey@gmail.com if you want to be put on a mailing list and kept up to date with everything.
Directions for the venue are at these sites accessible by clicking on the links below. We meet at The Ale House, which is an independent micro pub on 12-14 Market Place https://www.facebook.com/The-A%C5%82e-House-Clitheroe-1535941033345720/.
Park anywhere you can find on the main street through Clitheroe or I would recommend parking on Lowergate car park opposite the Key Street bar (the one with the green guitars embellishing its front) because it’s free after 6pm and you can walk round the corner to the bar http://carparkmaps.co.uk/carparks /view/18671
It is important to emphasize that these workshops are not open to the public and not free, though the public can listen in. If you pay in advance then you get one workshop free (five workshops for £40) with no refunds for absentees otherwise it’s £10 per session. I am registered with the Inland Revenue and CRB checked.
I hope you appreciate that I have to do this as I earn my living as a full time professional musician and guitar teacher on a daily basis. I happen to think it will work much better and we’ll improve together if we’re more focused and committed. Though it’s essential we have fun! 
I also recommend getting a lift or walk if you live locally so that you get chance to sample some of the excellent craft beers and real ales on rotation at the bar. But that comes with a warning…they are really nice.
Click on the link to listen to the track Dunedin To Skye taken from the live acoustic album “Colourful Language” by songwriter Mike Kneafsey and guitarist Oliver Day recorded last summer |Dunedin To Skye from the Ep Colourful Language
So which songs are we going to do…?
We need to start as simply as we can to sound effective as a group before we find out who gets the complex lead guitar parts and who likes to sing, if ever, and who hates or loves The Eagles (for example). So if you can keep a 4/4 time and swap between the D, A and G we’re off. We can belt out Bad Moon Rising by Credence Clearwater. https://youtu.be/w6iRNVwslM4 as our warm up song. If you want to sing it and find that John Fogerty has one of those high rockin out rock n roll voices that’s too high for your liking we can always transpose it to a different key and swap between A, E and D.
To begin with. Famous songs we are all likely to know, which are tried and tested, will also work better. I’ve added Norwegian Wood because it’s in 3/4 time and has a catchy sitar-style riff if you want to learn it but we need capos for this. Dock of The Bay allows us to introduce some bass and strum. Take It Easy is a mega long rock song which enforces intense concentration until you’ve “got it” and are used to complete songs with lots of changes. Brown Eyed Girl requires lots of changes and energy too.
I might just add some more to see what you like and surprise you…but the list should give you a heads up..
Looking forward to getting going again…
Mike Kneafsey
PS Feedback very welcome
Mike Kneafsey Guitar 